What I'd really like to do is become a columnist and have a talk show but my immediate desire is to do the following:
1. get a small, clean, functional web site to sell advice for $ 10.
2. have a shopping cart
3. market at places like Craigslist
I have a minimal budget at best. I work in real estate research and the business has died. I'm barely keeping a roof over my head. I do believe it will pick up, at least a little, with refinancing of homes a likelihood in the next few months. If I can make this other business a solid part-time income and continue to form a writing product for online papers, I will have a career.
So...what do you think...how can I, on a shoestring budget for now, get a functional, clean web site with a home page, testimonial page and a shopping cart to direct people too for a reasonable price.
I would advertise, have people call me and then refer them to the web site.
Thanks very much for your help,
Michael
Answer You can do what you want to do at a minimum cost. However, if you are not well known, it will take a few years to become well known so, don't expect any immediate help with cash flow. The trick, as usual, will be to get traffic to your website.
It sounds like you can do what you want to do with a free blog from Wordpress. Most paid hosts provide a website creation software tool. You can get a host and domain for $2 per month from 1and1. http://ewebsmith.com/14.html
There are also places where you can get free hosting and there are free shopping carts available. Google "free hosting" and "free shopping carts".
Plan your website with SEO in mind before you create it.
This page will give you access to some free ebooks on SEO and online business on the right side of the page. http://ewebsmith.com/nl052707.html
If you don't know how to code, you can create a simple website using the message editor from Groupmail and upload it to your host. A free version is available from this page. http://ewebsmith.com/13.html
Social sites like twitter and facebook are pretty good ways to build up a following for your new website. You need to target your audience and this is a pretty good free tool to get started selecting the types of people you want to communicate with. http://www.twellow.com/
